Lost in translation

Cradling a hot cup of herbal tea, Josita Maouene apologizes for her hoarse voice as she sits down to discuss her teaching experience at IU.\nAlthough she is sick and her voice is raspy, Maouene speaks the best she can, articulating her thoughts in an exotic blend of British and French accents. \nIt is her third semester teaching in a foreign country, and Maouene is no stranger to communication issues. \n"First semester I had trouble looking them in the face," she said, referring to the undergraduate psychology students she taught in the fall of 2004. \n"I make mistakes. I have an accent. For some people it can be problematic to adjust."\nMaouene is on one side of a story with multiple layers; she is one of many foreign instructors at IU attempting to teach complex material in a language she is still learning. \nOn the other side are the students, who must occasionally learn to decipher thick accents or imperfect English in addition to challenging course material.\nIt's a situation that is likely to remain relevant in years to come, as a considerable percentage of graduate and doctoral degrees in the United States are earned by students from other countries. \nAccording to the Survey of Earned Doctorates released by the National Science Foundation, 31 percent of doctoral degrees in 2003 were earned by non-U.S. citizens. In scientific fields, foreign doctoral students actually dominate the educational landscape; 63 percent of engineering and 45 percent of physical science doctoral degrees were earned by non-U.S. citizens. \nHere at IU, the impact of these numbers sometimes manifests itself in undergraduate lectures. \nSenior Julie Dziak said she experienced anxiety when her stress management instructor's heavy accent clouded the content of his lectures. \n"He'd be giving lecture and some words wouldn't come across right," Dziak said. "A lot of people would get frustrated and just start sighing out loud in class." \nSometimes, however, instructors are put at an immediate disadvantage due to their imperfect accents, Maouene said. \n"Sometimes we sound dumb or simplistic because we don't have all the words," she said. \nPredrag Radivojac, assistant professor of informatics, left Serbia in 1999 when he accepted a job in Philadelphia. Although he said his students at IU have been very patient when it comes to his English, he was taken advantage of when he first became a teaching assistant in Philadelphia. \n"Two students were cheating and I caught them," he said. "They complained that they couldn't understand me. Luckily, other students saved me and the professor was on my side." \nIn addition to overcoming the language barrier, Radivojac said it was hard to adjust to the educational system in the United States, which offers more course options and requires professors to attract students to their courses.\n"I don't see education as having that component of advertising, saying, 'Oh, take my course!'" he said. \nDobrin Bossev, associate professor of physics, also noticed the need to attract students to his course when he came to the United States after growing up in Bulgaria and studying physics in Japan. \n"I have never heard such thinking in Bulgaria, that the course has to be sold to the students. But here, I have to be on top of everything, a good showman," he said. "It makes my teaching more challenging and more interesting." \nMaouene agreed, adding that students are also graded easier in the United States. \n"In Europe we had the stereotype that we give good grades because students are paying, but from working on the inside, I don't see that," she said. "We don't want to punish students with grades, we want to encourage them."\nLynn Di Pietro, assistant dean for graduate education, works frequently with international AIs. Dipietro said having an international AI can provide students with practical experience to apply in the global workplace. In addition, she said both students and instructors must make an effort to keep communication clear. \n"To make the cross-cultural learning dimension work, both parties need to be proactive ... Students need to make an effort to understand accented speech," she said. "The AIs should acknowledge worries students have about difficulty understanding their English." \nThe experience will only be positive, however, if AIs are well equipped to communicate course material effectively, she said.\nIn order to prepare international AIs, the University takes two steps: first, a language-screening test is administered to make sure the instructor can clearly convey material to the class; second, a graduate-level course called "Teaching in the U.S. classroom" is offered to any graduate students seeking assistance. \nSenior Megan Fogarty participated in the Conversation Partners Program which pairs international AIs with undergraduate students to introduce each student to the other's culture and give AIs a chance to practice their English on a weekly basis. \n"We went to Nick's once and he had a hamburger. He didn't know what ketchup was," said Fogarty of her conversational partner. \n"I'm not a very diverse person at all, and I was kind of intimidated to do it, but I'm really glad that I did," she said. "Bloomington is such a nice city, it was nice to show it off to someone who's never been here." \nThere are other aspects that make teaching in a foreign language easier -- math and science, for example, already share a culturally independent set of dialects, said Bossev. \n"The apple falls with the same speed in Japan, Bulgaria and the USA," he said. "If you talk about World War II, there are many perspectives. Physics is straightforward."\nIn spite of the occasional student complaints, Radivojac said his teaching experience in the United States has been overwhelmingly positive.\n"One thing I realized when I came ... is the tolerance and how well-received I was," he said. "I always thought that was the best thing in the States. It makes you feel good, like you're accepted"